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Singing Windrush: Calypso in Britain

Episode Three: Cricket, Lovely Cricket

On 29 June 1950, the West Indies completed an emphatic victory over England at Lord’s, their first ever on English soil. The victory, celebrated wildly that day by the team’s supporters in London, was immortalised forever in the song, ‘Cricket, Lovely Cricket’. This third and final episode explores how Caribbean migrants made London, and Britain, the place for them: through cricketing victories, carnivals, and political organising. As they did so, Lord Kitchener and others also turned their gaze abroad to capture the spirit of decolonisation. On the 70th anniversary of the arrival of the Windrush, the calypsos they produced on Britain and its empire remain as relevant as ever.